New Zealand operator Spark has revealed plans to raise its fixed broadband prices in the wake of a regulatory decision to allow wholesale operator Chorus to raise the cost of access to its national copper network.
Spark will raise prices for its copper broadband and landline plans by NZ$5 per month, National Business Reviewreported.
Customers with just a landline connection in major cities Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch will also be required to pay NZ$3.50 extra.
Regulator the Commerce Commission recently set the price Chorus may charge for access to its infrastructure at an average of NZ$41.69 per month, higher than the NZ$38.43 initially selected.
According to Spark this has increased line charges by nearly NZ$8 per month for broadband connections and over NZ$7 per month for landline voice connections. Fiber prices are not affected.
The company has remarked that it was disappointed to have had to raise prices, but felt it was required to do so due to the wholesale price hike.
InternetNZ, the non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the internet in the nation, believes Spark's decision was an “all-too-predictable effect to of the Commerce Commission's Christmas price hike for wholesale copper broadband,” according to the body's CEO Jordan Carter.
“We expect that other ISPs will be looking at their prices and increasing them too. The wholesale prices announced this week should have been lower, not a surprise hike. All New Zealanders are the losers in this scenario - we'll all be paying more for broadband than we should,” he said in a statement.
Spark was formed through the enforced separation of former state-owned monopoly Telecom NZ's wholesale and retail divisions into Chorus and Spark respectively.
The separation was aimed at breaking the monopoly handed to the privatized Telecom NZ, and was a condition of the company's participation in the nationwide Ultrafast Broadband network project.